But You Promised Forever
by YoursTruly101
Summary: A life can change for the best within a few minutes, but also for the worse within a few seconds. One-shot. R&R.


**Dedication: ****Dedicated to my friend CarsmeCarlislexEsme who helped me with the title on this one-shot.**

**But You Promised Forever**

**One-Shot **

"No, Derek, we shouldn't be here. I have a bad feeling about this." I tugged on my boyfriend's arm. It was the Fourth of July, and we had just finished watching fireworks downtown. On our way back to the car, we got lost. Derek swore he knew where we were parked, but apparently he didn't. "I'm serious! This alley is creeping me out!" I tugged on his arm again, and my arms lipped down, touching the side of his leg, his pocket. Something was in his pocket, and it wasn't his wallet. "What's in your pocket?" I asked.

"Oh, c'mon! You couldn't wait, oh, I don't know, maybe an hour to find that?"

"What?"

He reached into his pocket to take out its contents. "This isn't very romantic."

"No, actually. It's downright creepy... Why are you kneeling? Do you know how disgusting this ground is? OMIGOD." He had knelt down on one knee and had an open ring box in his hands. The ring. Breathtaking.

"Laila, I love you more than anything. I can't imagine another day of my life without you, so I want to be with you forever. Will you be my wife?"

I didn't speak. I couldn't. I just nodded yes rather rapidly while giving him my left hand.

As he slipped the ring gently onto my finger, he said, "So you choose now to not verbalize." He laughed.

"I love you," I said.

"That's more like it!" He stood up, smiling, and hugged me tightly.

Footsteps. A cackle.

"Oh, look at the happy couple."

"Aren't they just precious?"

"Adorable."

We stopped hugging, and pulled away to see who our visitors were, but I still clung on to his arm. In front of us were three drunken shadows. One stepped closer to us, me.

"Hey, doll face," he said. He reeked of God knows what mixed with alcohol, his crooked teeth had yellowed, and his clothing was what you would call the opposite of prep. The complete opposite. "Why not you ditch that bastard of yours, and come hang with us?"

Derek and I took a step back in unison.

"No!" I replied forcefully, starting to shake with fear.

"What do you want?" Derek asked.

One of them looked at the other two and asked them, "I don't know. What do we want, boys?"

"Something to do," the one on the right shrugged.

"Some amusement," the left one said drably, chewing on some unidentifiable object.

"How much money do you want?" Derek asked, ready to give any amount of money to keep me safe. The man closest to us—he seemed to be the leader of the group—stepped even closer, a mere half a foot from Derek's face.

"Your whore's pretty attractive!" With that Derek let go of me and punched the guy straight in the face. He stumbled back a bit from the blow of Derek's hand. The guy's hand was covering his nose, which had begun to bleed, and shook his head. "You really shouldn't have done that."

"And you shouldn't have called my fiancé a whore!" Derek yelled back. I looked just past the closest man. Something had caught my eye. The guy on the left had pulled a gun out of his pocket. I involuntarily gasped. Instinctively, my hand went to my back pocket where my phone was, trying quickly to blind dial 911. I prayed I pressed the correct buttons.

The man on the right came up to me and grabbed my wrist. "Get away from her!" Derek yelled, pulling me behind him, but the man pulled me back. I screamed.

A few seconds later, I felt something cold up against my temple.

Their gun.

"Give us the ring." I obeyed, trembling, and slowly took off the ring that Derek had just given me minutes ago, symbolizing his love for me, symbolizing the life we were about to start together. The gun was removed from my head as the man stepped back; however, he still had the gun pointed in my direction. He looked at the ring. Then handed it back to me for a reason unknown to Derek and me. I slipped it back on. He held his hand out to Derek. "Wallet, now." Derek set his wallet in the gunman's hand, who fingered through its contents. "Hmmm, a little rich boy!" I saw him put his finger back on the trigger, the gun still pointed at me. I screamed, closed my eyes, waiting for the blackness that awaited me. A loud noise rang through my head. No pain. Was this what death was like? Peaceful. Possibly.

No.

I opened my eyes. Derek was on the ground in front of me, red blood seeping through his shirt. "NOO!" I shrieked and dropped to my knees, hugging him. I soon felt his blood on me, but I didn't care. Tears streamed down my face. "No, Derek, I love you, no, why? Don't leave me. Don't. Derek," I mumbled before looking up at the three men. "FUCK YOU!" I yelled.

One them chuckled. "Oh, honey! I'd fuck you any day."

"Go to hell!" I cried.

The buttons I had dialed minutes before had been 911. I knew this because I heard sirens. The three men scattered. I laid my head on Derek's chest, crying harder than I ever had before.

"But you promised forever."

**Please Review! **


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